Chinese general kills self after facing graft probe

BEIJING: A Chinese general has killed himself in his Beijing home after becoming the latest top official ensnared by President Xi Jinping’s sweeping anti-corruption campaign, state media said on Tuesday.

Zhang Yang, a member of the state’s Central Military Commission, was being investigated over connections to two graft-tainted former senior military officers when he hanged himself on November 23, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

Xi promised during last month’s Communist Party congress to intensify graft crackdowns which have already brought down 1.5 million party officials of various levels—including top military brass—since 2012.

Zhang Yang AFP PHOTO

Zhang, 66, was previously head of the state military commission’s political work department. Before the congress, he was also part of the Communist Party’s Central Military Commission. Members of the two bodies overlap.

According to Xinhua, which cited a commission statement, Zhang “gravely violated disciplinary protocols and broke the law, was suspected of bribery as well as taking bribes, and holding valuable assets whose origins are unclear.”

A posting on a social media account managed by the People’s Liberation Army Daily, the military’s official newspaper, accused Zhang of “escaping responsibility” via suicide.

“The once-high-and-mighty general has ended his life in this disgraceful way,” the post said Tuesday, calling Zhang a “two-faced” person who “shouted loyalty from his mouth while committing corruption behind his back.”

“The army holds the barrel of a gun—we cannot allow any corrupt elements to hide behind it.”

Xinhua reported that the state military commission decided to hold “talks” with Zhang on August 28 about his links to Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, top army officials who were expelled from the communist party.

Guo, a vice-chairman of the commission, became the most senior People’s Liberation Army (PLA) official to be convicted of corruption in half a century when he was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2016.